Kalidas' Nayikas in Odissi Dance

In my post 'An American Odyssey' of 25th Sept. 2012, I have added a video of Kalidas's heroines presented by the American danseuse Sharon Lowen in Odissi dance.

Here is another video on Kalidas's nayikas in Odissi dance, this one presented by Anandi Ramachandran.

The Daughter-in-law

God has given me two wonderful gifts in the form of two daughters; I do not have a son. Yet recently I got a still more wonderful gift: a brand new daughter-in-law!

My younger brother expired about 3 years ago; his wife had predeceased him. Their two sons are attached to us. I had constructed a house long back and had no opportunity of living in it till my retirement 4 years ago. The building has a separate, independent and self-contained room. This was like a family guest house. Whichever member of our family, including me, visited this State Capital for some work, would stay there and attend to the purpose of his/her visit. Years ago, the younger son of this brother of mine occupied this room when he came to Bhubaneswar for studies. His parents were alive then. The older boy was studying elsewhere and after taking up a job, now lives where his job takes him. Soon after my retirement and his father’s death, the younger boy got a non-transferable job at the place and so, continues to live in that room and with us. Now we are a four-some: the wife, me and these two nephews, who are like our two sons.

After the death of my younger brother, the pleasant job of getting the boys married fell on us.

There was this reed of pretty girl, who is very distantly related to us. She and the elder boy had several occasions to meet at social events. They developed a liking for each other. He let this known to us. Due to some reasons which are not relevant to mention here, a few members of our extended family did not like the match. However, in so many subtle and not-so-subtle words, he made it transparent to us that he would like only her - and no other girl- as his life-partner.  I spoke to them. Some were persuaded; others acquiesced in.

So the proposal was taken ahead. The wife and I took charge. The marriage took place 2 weeks ago. Everything went off almost as planned.

One thing that touched and moved me was the way the girl wept copiously when she finally left her parents’ house for her new home. It was really heart-rending and touched my emotions. In the car that she was brought to our house, I was sitting in the front; the newly-wedded youngsters were in the back-seat. The journey took three quarters of an hour. Weeping gave way to sobbing and her sobbing went on over half the way. She could not still regain control over her emotions and even after the sobbing slowed down, her convulsive catching of breath continued till we almost reached the door-steps of our house.

This took me back to my childhood days. The weeping of a young bride at the time of leaving for her husband’s house was a much more prolonged affair then. The bride would catch hold of her mother, father, brothers, sisters, sisters-in-law, uncles, aunts and most other members of her parental family one by one and would weep bitterly and really hard, so hard that she would often faint. Ahead of the departure-time, the family-members would be ready with all methods to revive her. Due to deep weeping, the brides’ teeth would sometimes get locked as she fainted. Her jaws would be separated with the help of keys.

There were a number of weeping-songs that the would-be bride would start learning and practicing with her friends much before the marriage. There is a rich literature of such lyrics in Odia. These were folk-songs in which the bride would entreat and beseech her parents and others about how difficult her life would be in her husband’s place. (I have a book of collection of these songs.)    

All these are past. In those days girls were always living in the protective environment of their parents’ houses. They would never have to leave their homes before marriage except of course for visits to relatives. With the spread of female-education, girls started going to schools away from home and to colleges far away. They started staying in college-hostels and women’s-hostels in cities. This way, girls, many of whom took jobs after education, started living away from parents and developed a sense of independence. Pangs of separation from parents got diluted and so leaving for her husband’s house after marriage became less and less painful for a girl. Weeping bitterly at the time of leaving the parental home after marriage, lost its strength and depth. This literature is now extinct and now can be accessed only at Research Centres.

This girl whom we brought to our as our niece-in-law, was just out of her Degree College. I gathered that she had always lived in the cocoon of parental care. She had studied in a college near her home and so, had never to stay in a hostel. She is the youngest daughter and as such her parents always fussed over and hovered around her taking care she would not face the slightest difficulty in anything or anywhere.

As I have said, I have no son. I have seen and have been told that in bringing up children, it is easier to handle girls than to manage boys, particularly adolescent boys. Yet, as luck would have it, we have been handed down two boys - without having to go through the task of bringing them up. Now, we have been gifted with a daughter-in-law; a second one would come in a couple of years hence.

My nephews address me as uncle – as they were doing before the death of their parents. This new addition to our family calls me ‘Bapa’ (father). Early morning everyday, after taking bath, she comes to me and touches my feet.   

We had got two ready-made sons; now we have got a daughter-in-law.

The couple will leave for his place of work in a few days. The pangs of separation are being transferred to the two of us.:(((((((((((((

Just before her entry to our house, she was weeping; now her smiles brighten up wherever she goes. Our life is becoming fuller:)))))))))))))))))) 

ADDENDUM:

 BRIDES OF INDIA - Postage Stamps:

 

Kashmiri Bride	Tamil Bride
Rajasthani Bride

NATARAJA DANCE

Lord Shiva, Nataraja, is the original dancer. The title Natya Shashtra, the definitive treatise on dance,is derived from his name.

I loved this clip on Nataraja Dance. Here it is: 



This dance is apparently inspired by a statute of the dancing Lord Shiva Inside a ring-like device in a  temple in Tamil Nadu.

A replica of this statue occupies a pride of place in my drawing room. Most visitors admire it and often, it serves as a good conversation-piece.

SOHAM ASMI - I'M THAT

Here is a wonderful clip on Odissi dance:

MOTHER SERIOUS STOP COME SOON

MOTHER SERIOUS STOP COME SOON

This is the message that Sagar – let us call our protagonist by this name - received by a telegram sent by his father. He rushed to his place without giving a thought to the wording of the message. He did not stop to think as to when his mother was ever in a lighter mood. She was always serious – serious about whatever she was engaged with at any time. Rarely would she be in a lighter mood!  

What Sagar did, is beside the point. What we are concerned here is the correct meaning of the words of the telegram. To go strictly by rules of English Grammar and Composition, the message should have been worded as: MOTHER SERIOUSLY ILL STOP COME SOON.  But that is the way telegrams are worded – and understood correctly. One thing to be noticed here is that in telegrams inessential words like verbs are omitted to cut cost and since punctuations cannot be transmitted by telegraph, the word ‘STOP’ is used at the end of each sentence.

For long years, I used to think that ‘telegram’ and ‘telegraph’ were one and the same thing although I had noticed that the agency handling telegrams was named ‘Department of Post & Telegraph’ and never ‘Dept. of Post & Telegram’.  This was till I found out that ‘telegraph’ is the means, the process, the equipment by which a message is sent and telegram is the message, the product!

                                                        The Telegraph Equipment

All this quibbling is going to end soon. As this service has become un-remunerative, Bharat Sanchar Nigam, which took over the telegram service from the Dept. of P & T in 1990s, will discontinue it from the 15^th July, 2013. Much earlier, the minimum charge for sending a telegram containing 8 words including the address was Rs. 3.50. (For messages exceeding 8 words, there was a charge for each additional word.) Then the minimum charge was increased to Rs. 4.50. In May, 2011, the minimum charge was increased to Rs. 27.50 to cover a part of the cost. (I can’t understand why there is always that 50 paise and the charge is not in round Rupees like Rs. 3 or Rs. 5.).Despite this steep increase in charges, the total expenditure of BSNL on the service in 2011-12 was Rs. 149.37 Crore while the revenue earned was a meager Rs. 13 Crore! Reports say that U K had discontinued this service in 1982 and U S A did so in 2006.

There has been a revolution in telecommunication in India and due to widespread use of e-mails and mobile phones, particularly SMS, telegraph service, like sending of letters has fallen into disuse. In 1985, there were more than 4500 Telegraph Offices in India. At present there are only 75 Telegraph Offices in the whole country. Telegrams, which came into use in India in 1850, i.e., more than 160 years ago, are going to be extinct by the Darwinian principle of ‘Survival of the fittest’. Just as TV has almost killed radio and mobile phones are killing land phones, digital communication is going to push telegrams to history.

To mark the demise of telegram, Amul, in its series of brief and witty ads, has released an ad titled, TELEGRAM FULL STOP. This headline is followed by ‘ut-taar-ly – Butterly Delicious, bringing to mind its slogan - ‘Amul. Utterly Butterly Delicious’.

However, telegrams have their uses. Telegrams and telegraph-receipts are accepted by courts as proof of delivery of communication. The military uses this service most. Requests of employees for sanction or extension of leave are permitted on the basis of telegrams, not phone calls. Since telegrams are sent by wire, such a messages themselves are often called ‘wire’. Banks receive Bills for collection and quite often one of the instructions of the sender would be, ‘Advise Payment by Wire’, meaning, when the Bill is paid by the Drawee, the Bank should send a telegram to the sender.

In 1792, Claude Chappe of France devised what was then called ‘Optical Telegraph’. To overcome the problems of Optical Telegraph, the American painter Samuel Morse developed electric telegraph in 1836. His assistant Alfraid Vail developed what is called the ‘Morse Code’ signaling alphabets, with Morse. On the 24^th May, 1844 year, Morse sent the first telegraphic message from Washington DC to Baltimore. It read as: WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT. His ‘taare takka’ was the expression of a kind of sound.  The telegraph was first used in British India in 1850. The first telegraph line was established between Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Diamond Harbour on the Hoogly. Telegraph facility was made available for commercial use in 1854 in India. Then the oceans were wired and a direct link was established between London and Calcutta. East India Company which was ruling India at that time, used the system of telegraph to suppress the ‘ Sepoy Mutiny’ (the First War of Indian Independence) of 1857.

At the receiving end, telegrams get typed, all in capital letters, on strips of white paper which are pasted on a pink form and then are delivered in or without an envelope. Arrival of a telegram invariably increases the heart-beat of the recipient. It may bear good or bad tidings. It may announce the birth of a child, death or success of a near one, a congratulatory message for the addressee or the journey-plan of a visitor.

For bringing into the world our First Born, the wife had gone to her parents’ place. At that time I was working in a small District Head Quarters town in U P. The birth of Daughter I was conveyed to me by a telegram. I have carefully preserved this valuable document among other memorabalia. Here it is.

When Daughter II arrived, use of telephone had become more popular. So this news was conveyed to me over telephone. So I had no way to preserve such nostalgic news carried on pink paper, for posterity. Daughter II and I will always miss it.

 

The impeding death of telegram brings to mind how Trunk Calls have come to disuse after the telecom revolution ushered in STD- Subscriber Trunk Dialing. Before that, for talking to a person in another place one had to call the Telephone Exchange and book a Trunk Call. Trunk Calls came in 3 forms, Ordinary, Urgent and Lightening.  The operator at the telephone would receive these bookings, note such  requests in serial order and call the bookers one by one in that order. A separate list would be made of requests for Urgent Calls. For Lightening Calls, the telephone operator would give the connection immediately. The charges for Urgent Calls were double that for Ordinary Calls. The charge for a Lightening Call would be much higher. That was the time when for making even a local call, one had to call the Telephone Exchange, tell the operator the telephone number of the person one wanted to talk to  and request the operator to give the connection! And for talking over Trunk Calls, one had to shout with full lung-power to be able to be heard at the other end!!

When I joined my Bank, my seat was next to the Officer who was in charge of maintaining the Position of Sale and Purchase of Foreign Exchange. He used to make  and receive calls to and from various Branches of the Bank all over India for this purpose. The poor fellow would have to shout over Trunk Calls throughout the day and would have a sore throat and coarse voice at the end of each day.

Telegrams have to be brief. Sometimes, this brings unintended fun. In a rural Branch of the Bank, there was only one Officer who was the only Authorised Signatory in the Branch. Whenever he had to go on leave another Officer of the Bank used to come from the Divisional Office to take charge of the Branch. The poor fellow’s wife met with an untimely death; he sent a telegram to the Divisional Office, ‘WIFE EXPIRED STOP SEND SUBSTITUTE’.  

During the war of Independence of Bangladesh in 1970-71, the U S Consul General Archor Blood used to send diplomatic dispatches from Dhaka, giving details of atrocities being committed by the Pakistani military on Bengalis there. Archor Blood’s telegrams detailing the bloody genocides were called ‘Blood Telegrams’, the term aptly carrying a double meaning.

Napoleon loved the body-odour (fragrance if you like) of Jesophine. While returning from one of his successful military campaigns, he sent a telegram to her saying, ‘DON’T WASH I AM COMING’.

Dorothy Parker sent a telegram to her friend who just had a baby, ‘DEAR MARY – WE KNEW YOU HAD IT IN YOU’.   

Mark Twain sent a telegram to a newspaper, ‘RUMOURS OF MY DEATH ARE VASTLY EXAGGERATED’. The author of this terse telegram received a telegram from his publisher, ‘NEED 2-PAGE SHORT STORY TWO DAYS’. Promptly he telegraphed back, ’NO CAN DO 2 PAGES TWO DAYS STOP CAN DO 30 PAGES 2 DAYS STOP NEED 30 DAYS TO DO 2 PAGES’.

TAIL PIECE:

Oscar Wilde once wanted to know how his new book was selling. He sent to his publisher a message “?”. His publisher matched the brevity with brevity and wit with wit by replying “!”.  

2. "Goodbye, telegram. And goodbye letters in envelopes, goodbye post office, goodbye beautiful days, goodbye childhood , goodbye happiness." - Taslima Nasreen, Bangladeshi writer living in India, on the end of telegraph service.

POST SCRIPT
July 15, 2013

On July 14,2013, the last day in the life of telegrams in India, a Member of Parliament from Odisha sent a telegram to the Prime Minister of India saying, "THIS IS THE LAST TELEGRAM".

9 P M of that day was the time for withdrawing telegraph service. There was a big rush at most of the Telegraph Offices in India that day as people wished to say 'Goodbye' by sending a last telegram:(((((

Many of the visitors were first-timers who wanted to send souvenir messages to friends and family. A techie at Bangalore sent a telegram to his wife saying "I LOVE YOU STOP". He said that his wife always complained that he had never proposed to her; he sent the telegram to STOP her complaint. The revenue earned by BSNL on the last day was a whooping Rs. 69 Lakh! 

SAMAKALA II

In my post ‘Samakala’ of 19.06.2012, I had narrated my experience of attending a Festival of Contemporary Dance last year.

The Department of Tourism, Govt. of Odisha and Odisha Sangeet Natak Academy organized the 2nd Festival of Contemporary Dance at Bhubaneswar from the 11^th to the SAMAKALA II

13^th June, 2013. I attended the Festival.

The word ‘contemporary’ means ‘at the same time as’. Contemporary dance is a style of expressive dance which connects the mind and body. It combines the vocabulary of several dance-forms. The thirst for improvisation caused its birth.

Contemporary dance is like abstract art. It needs an effort to understand its nuances. A deep insight into it is needed to appreciate its meaning and beauty. I tried to remember these while watching the performance but I shall be less than honest if I say that I could fully understand the nuances.

Padmini Chettur of Chennai’s presentation was first item of the first evening. Her dance-number ‘Beautiful Thing -2’ represented the relationship of the body’s geometry with space. The booklet made available at the function explained: ‘The performance prescribes nine ‘lines’ in space. The physicality of the body becomes abstracted over time till the spaces it holds and moves become more present.’ Padmini quotes the statement of her teacher Chandralekha, “Where does the body begin and where does it end?”

One can have a glimpse of Padmini's dance-number 'Beautiful 2' from Youtube.

The second presentation in the first evening was by Ashavari Majumdar from Kolkata, who originally trained in Kathak. Her item ‘Surpanakha’ was a combination of Kathak, spoken text and video presentation. The production drew from various versions of The Ramayan to present new perspectives on Surpanakha, through her relationship with Ravana, Sita and Rama.

The second evening started with 2 dance-numbers by Anita Ratnam from Chennai (web portal www.narthaki.com). The first one, ‘Avani’ was inspired by the epic poems by Rabindranath Tagore, his call to the earth as Prithvi, mother, protector and destroyer. Like Durga, she is both gentle and fierce and capable of caring and devouring. Her second presentation was ‘Sita’. It presented Sita refusing to return to safety on Hanuman’s shoulders.

The second presentation of the second evening was by Astad Deboo from Mumbai. The 4 parts of his performance were titled ‘Surrender’, ‘Your Grace’, ‘Awakening’ and ‘Walking Tall’.  

The third evening started with the presentation ‘Dravya Kaya’ by Navetej Johar from New Delhi.  Dravya is objects and kaya means body. It focused on select objects in Ramayana and attempted to imagine the visceral exchange between these objects and their human users. It explored the tenacity of Rama’s kodanda (bow) as well as the bow-ness of the archer’s body. It focused on the valkala vastra (garment made from tree-bark) that Sita wore when banished into the forest. It also dealt with the relationship between inside/outside as well as between earth and food through the episode of Lakshman Rekha.

The last presentations of the programme were River Sutra and other dance-numbers by Ramli Ibrahim and his Group from Malaysia. These were inspired by Bharatanatym, Odissi and modern dance. Trained in classical ballet, modern dance and Indian classical dance, Ramli has single-handedly established Odissi dance in Malaysia.

Like last year, I attended the 3-day Dance Festival out of curiosity and to be a little familiar with Contemporary Dance Forms and have a little insight into it. I must confess that I could not fully comprehend everything that was being presented on the stage. Some of the nuances were inscrutable and intriguing. Most of the interpretations given in this post are from the booklet made available to the viewers at the venue. The compere in her introductory remarks explained that most of us are familiar with traditional dance-forms but we can develop a taste for contemporary dance. To understand its nuances, the viewer has be mentally a participant in the presentations. One has to be more attentive and more involved than when viewing presentations of classical dance-forms.

I hope attending the 3-day Festival last year and this has slightly expanded my horizon of appreciating the world of dance-forms.

            

An Age-Old Story

It is an irony of the social life of human beings that no one is happy about her/his age. A child does not like to be small. It wishes to be an adult; it likes to put on the dress and slip into the shoes of adults. A child wishes to become older as soon as possible. A young boy or girl wishes to grow, as soon as possible, out of world controlled by parents, other adults in the family and teachers.

Contrarily, adults wish to go back in time and become younger. Or, at least to look younger! A woman never likes to be addressed as ‘auntie’ by people other than her nephew or niece; she would love to be addressed as ‘Didi’ by all non-relatives. There is the ad of a hair-dye wherein a couple is shown getting ready to go out to attend a social function. The lady teases her man with a slightly greying hair saying, “At the party everyone will call you ‘uncle’.” He dyes his hair. At the party, he becomes a favourite with the ‘sweet young things’ there. The woman gets upset and drags him back, barking at those girls, “My husband.” !!!

Another ad of a toilet soap presents a very young-looking and very pretty model. A young man asks her, "In which College are you studying?" She responds, "Me? College?". Then a cute child enters the scene and hugs the model with a call, "Mummy". The man wonders, "Mummy?". The ad implies that if a woman uses that particular brand of toilet soap, she will continue to have a young look for ever!  

A wise saying goes: Never ask a woman her age and a man his income! A woman creates a scene if you ask her age but the same woman creates a bigger scene if her man forgets her birthday! When birthdays and wedding anniversaries of ladies are mentioned, it contains only the date and month, blithely omitting the year; it is not ‘politically correct’ to mention the year. Ladies wish to pull back their age.  Anti-ageing creams and lotions are a must for ladies conscious about their appearance. Small packs of these cost a fortune but the price bothers no lady worth her salt (or looks). Once I came across a piece written by a man and titled, ‘When the Wife Dyed’.

When streaks of grey hair appear near a man’s temples, these are clipped off to camouflage the advancing age. A man used to sport a bushy and luxuriant moustache. His wife liked it very much. One day, she asked him to shave it off and never again to grow a moustache. He was surprised as he loved the macho image that the moustache gave him. When he asked her the reason for this, she whispered,” A few strands of grey are appearing in your facial hair. If people notice this, they will think you are growing old. And with you I also shall be viewed alike.”  In many cases, by a quirk of nature, streaks of grey appear on a man’s face before they appear on his head. When a person crosses the age of forty, she/he is said to be ‘on the wrong side of forties.    

Talking of looks, I recollect the pictures of Akbar and his Queen in story-books like Amar Chitra Katha. In almost all the pictures, Akbar is shown with grey beards indicating a ripe age but his Queen is always a good-looking young lady. Was it the effect of some indigenous anti-ageing cosmetics used by her or was Akbar marrying young ladies regularly, sending his older queens to some Retirement Home in his palace?        

While joining a social club, I was asked about my Birthday. When I stated that, the next question was, “Is it the official or the real birthday?” In many cases these are two different dates. Registration of births is only recent practice in India and is still not the norm in many parts of the country. So, many persons have one real and another official birthday as mentioned in school-records. In many cases, the real birth-day is forgotten. Obtaining a copy of the Birth Certificate for recording the Date of Birth at the time of school-admission is still not the universal norm. So the school records whichever date the parent/guardian of the child states at the time of admission.

Till liberalization and privatization which came to India recently, Government-service was the preferred vocation of most people. In Government Service, retirement-age is fixed at 58 or 60. So, to ensure that the child remains in service for a longer period, parents used to state a date subsequent to the date of actual birth, as the date on which the child was born.

In most cases, rules prescribe that a person would retire on the last day of the month in which he/she was officially born. So if the person’s birthday is say, the 2^nd March, he/she would retire on the 31^st March. However, if the birthday is the 1^st March, the person would retire on the 28^th of the preceding February! The logic here is that the first person in this case attains the age of superannuation on the 1^st of March and so would retire on the 31^st March but the second person attains that ‘golden’ age on the previous 28^th February.

In the recent Delhi gang-rape case, the person who inflicted the most inhuman injury on the victim is likely to escape punishment as he is officially a minor (a couple months less than the age of 18) and so is being tried in the juvenile court and not by the regular court. He is likely to be let off after a short ‘probation’ in a Juvenile Home. His Defence Lawyer produced the record from the school where he studied, showing that he is a minor. He cannot be subjected to medical examination to determine his actual age as under law, medical examination is permissible only the absence of any other proof of age. When the school-authorities were asked by Press Reporters as to basis of the recording of the date of birth of the accused, a grin was the reply. In interior areas, where parents do not remember when the child was born, the school-authorities put some approximate date as the child’s date of birth, at the time of admission.

Grey hairs are considered as an indication of a person’s wisdom. When a person’s hair becomes grey with age, she/he is supposed to have gained wisdom from life’s experiences that she/he has gone through. But in the present day polluted environment, age has no connection with greying hair and premature greying of hair is the norm rather than exception.

In China, one has to deduct 1 from the stated figure to know the actual age of a person. That is because a Chinese child is considered as already 1 year in age at the time of birth itself!

In my school-days I had read an Odia poem which, loosely translated, runs like this:

   He is not old,

   Who has a head of grey;

   He who pursues knowledge in his youth,

   People call him wise.

In Hindu mythology, gods are ever young and youthful. It is said that the ocean was churned by gods on one side and the rakshasas on the other side, placing Meru Parbat  at the centre and using the Great Snake  Vasuki  as the rope. From the churning, the deadly  poison halahala came out at first and, to save the situation, Lord Shiva drank it and became Nilakantha (blue-throated). Then came out the pot of elixir. Both the gods and rakshasas wanted to drink it. Lord Vishnu played a trick and gave the elixir only to the gods, which made them immortal and ever young. Here, a question comes to  mind: Were gods mortal before this? Or, did this churning of the ocean happen at the beginning of Creation?

Why do most women, more than men, detest ageing? Clopatra was an exception. In Antony and Cleopatra, Shakespeare declares:

   Age cannot wither her nor custom stale,

   Her infinite variety.    

So, let us age gracefully and become ‘senior citizens’ rather than ‘old people’.

TAIL PIECE

An innocent and rustic middle-aged villager visited a city with his wife for the first time. They stood before a tall building and were awe-struck. At this time, the lift of the building opened and an old-looking woman entered it. The lift went up and came down in a minute. A pretty young lady came out of it. Our villager told his middle-aged wife, “You enter this machine and come out.”

2. "Middle age is when your age starts to show around your middle."
                                                                                                      - Bob Hope, American actor and wit